Digital Composite Interface; TV Loudness

Guest Speaker: Bob Orban

July 8, 2014

Our July guest speaker, Bob Orban, joined us by teleconference and discussed Orban's full-bandwidth, backward-compatible digital composite implementation. This digital interface is designed for the interconnection between FM stereo generators and exciters.

Mr. Orban also provided an update on television loudness control. A comparison between the CBS and BS.1770 technologies was provided.

Dinner, kindly sponsored by Orban, began at 6:00 PM, conducted some Chapter business about 6:45. Those in attendance were asked to make nominations for possible new Chapter 37 board members. A few prospective candidates were discussed.

The presentation began shortly thereafter, with a CEI facilities tour wrapping up the festivities.

Robert Orban received the B.S.E.E. degree from Princeton University in 1967 and the M.S.E.E. degree from Stanford University in 1968.

In 1970, he founded Orban Associates, originally as a manufacturer of studio equipment. In 1975, Orban Associates introduced the original Optimod-FM 8000, which was the first in a long line of broadcast audio processors for AM, FM, TV and digital broadcasting from the company.

Orban has also been involved in professional recording for many years and has mixed several records released on the Warner Bros. label, as well as on small independent labels. As a composer, his music has been heard on classical radio stations in New York and San Francisco, and his score for a short film, “Dead Pan,” was heard on PBS television in Chicago. He has designed studio reverberators, stereo synthesizers, compressors, parametric equalizers, enhancers, and de-essers under both the Orban and dbx brand names.

Orban has been actively involved in NRSC committee AM improvement work. He has been widely published in both the trade and refereed press (including J. Audio Engineering Soc., Proc. Soc. Automotive Engineers, and J. SMPTE). He co-authored the chapter on “Transmission Audio Processing” in the NAB Engineering Handbook, 10th edition. He currently holds over 20 U.S. patents.

In 1973 he was elected a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. In 1993, he shared with Dolby Laboratories a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he received the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award. In 2002, he received the Innovator award from Radio Magazine.